Half Life
by AJJAS
Summary: After serving the Volturi for centuries, Lucas has left the guard and taken residence with the Cullens and their lifestyle. Always content with his lot in life, he meets Millie Sawyer and suddenly he is forced to question all of his ideals and notions.


_I don't own any of the characters, except the ones I just created. I'm just borrowing them for my own personal amusement. _

I had never been particularly fond of the schoolroom. Nor did I care much for the rules and the teachers. Centuries of experiences never changed my position on the matter either, I would rather just learn the material myself than to have someone else try to force the information on me. But this was part of the charade. And humans, by far, were more interesting in their interactions with one another, especially in their crazy teenage years. And for this reason, I found myself in the woods hunting with my family hours before my first day of school at Hoquiam High School.

I had already drained off three deer and just finished dispatching the last carcass when a tastier scent drifted past me. The dry ache in my throat that animal blood never really suppressed roared back to life with a vengeance . The sun was already up, glinting off my marble skin like crystals, but I couldn't pass on the opportunity.

_Lucas, time to go. _Alice's thoughts called to me.

I knew it was dangerous to be out in the woods at this time of day, under these conditions, but if I was to be locked in a building for eight hours with potential meals with legs, it was better to be safe than sorry as far as feeding went.

Edward sighed. _Alright then, I'll tell the others. Just make sure you're home in time to make yourself look presentable. And don't be late._

They still worried over my diet choice. Although I've survived for centuries on my natural food source, I had come to the conclusion that just because the world made me out to be a monster, it did not mean I had _to be_ one. Aro, my "father" of sorts, had been disappointed with my choice, but surprisingly enough, he let me leave without much of a fight. He was, of course, sad to see his best "gatherer" leave, but Heidi was almost as effective.

I crept closer to the scent, the sweet smell calling me like a siren. I could hear my prey rustling in the leaves just below the rock cropping I was crouched upon. Within an eighth of a second I launched myself at my target silently and effortlessly. It only took a fraction of that second, myself in mid flight, to realize that my target was in fact, a human.

A human who had turned in that moment, with a camera in her hand, her dark eyes widening in surprise a moment before I landed, crouched next to her. Her body, still in shock, automatically took a step back, but managed to trip on her pant leg and started to fall backwards. Instinctively, I caught her before her head could land on the rock behind her. The camera flew out of her hand and slid a few feet away, the lens making a slight crunch as it fell to the earth.

Wide, dark brown eyes stared at me in shock. Her lips were parted into an "o" shape; her sweet breath came out in little erratic spurts. Belatedly, I realized I was sitting in the forest, under the sun, with a stranger pinned underneath me as a glittered and glowed like a diamond.

"Are you alright?" I asked quickly, knowing I should be on my way, but those eyes held me. She nodded slightly and I made my move to leave. I reached over and handed her camera back to her before taking off, as fast as my legs would carry me.

I caught up with the others, just as they had finished dressing themselves for the day. Edward froze as soon as he saw me.

"Lucas, what have you done?" He asked in horror, playing through the images in my head as he stood in the doorway to my room.

"Relax, Edward," I donned a new shirt Alice had placed in my closet, "I don't know her and she doesn't know me. And if, by chance, she does mention it to someone, who's going to believe her?" I asked casually. Surely no one would believe a psychotic babbling child about a man who glittered in the sun.

"She goes to our school," he was pinching the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. Edward definitely still overreacted sometimes.

"What's going on?" Alice asked, standing next to Edward. She tossed me pair of Italian boots and stared pointedly at the pair of tennis shoes on my feet. I sighed, females

"We've been exposed," Edward sent an accusing glare at me.

"WHAT?" Rosalie screeched from down the hallway. At least Edward wasn't the only melodramatic one in the house. By now, everyone had crowded into my room..

"What do you mean we've been exposed?" Rosalie asked harshly, "And quit trying to calm me down, Jasper." Alice smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"You didn't see any of this?" Jasper asked his mate softly. Alice shook her head a small frown marring her brow.

"Lucas, ran into Millie Sawyer this morning," Edward asked through clenched teeth.

"Oh, Lucas you didn't," Esme cried softly.

"I didn't kill anyone," I protested in defense.

"No, you did worse. You flaunted the fact that you turn into a walking disco ball under the sun and then you let her go," Edward said scathingly.

"Well what did you expect me to do, kill her?"

"Way to go, idiot. You just exposed us to one of the most popular girls in school," Rosalie added ruefully.

Bella finally suggested, "Well at least go to school and see if she tells anyone. That way if she doesn't you won't give her even more reason to be suspicious."

Carlisle, the father figure of our odd little coven/family of sorts, nodded silently. _It would be such a shame to have to leave this early. I won't be able to see if Mrs. Johnson responds to the treatments._

"I'll take care of it," I told them, looking around my room for my schoolbag.

"Oh dear," Esme cried softly, "You're not planning to - " She couldn't finish. I looked up in surprise, slightly annoyed that she would jump to such a conclusion. But then again, it was understandable that she would question my self control. If anyone else had spent one or two centuries hunting humans with the Volturi, I would be questioning them too. "No, I'm not going to do that," I reassured her gently. She sighed, relief washing over her face. I continued to look for my bag.

"It's in the car already," Rosalie snapped impatiently, "And don't you dare screw this up for us, Lucas Cullen." I sighed, while I loved my beautiful sister, sometimes I wish I could weld her mouth shut. Edward caught my train of thought and chuckled, _You're not alone on that one._ I sighed, following the others downstairs to the spacious garage.

"Who's driving?" I asked eying the shiny silver Audi A5, our "school" car.

"You are," Alice said tossing me the keys. She, Rosalie, and Jasper slid into the backseat while Emmett folded his hulking frame into the passenger seat. Edward and Bella were under the pretenses of being a young, married couple with a young daughter who worked from home. Well two out of four truths was good enough: they were married and Nessie was their daughter. But their income came from stocks and longterm investments and they could hardly be considered young anymore. How I envied that they did not have to sit through the endless droning and gossiping children. The clouds shifted to cover the sun, casting a gloomy spell over the sky, just as Alice had predicted.

I glanced at Emmett and Rosalie as we stood in the hall outside the front office waiting for the first bell to ring. They were holding hands, sappy expressions affixed on their faces. Alice stood next to Jasper holding his hand as he, discretely but lovingly, rubbed her hand with his thumb. It was nauseating to be in a house filled with so many couples. Edward and Bella were even worse, often making goo goo eyes at each other with their daughter: the type of image that would even send Norman Rockwell into gagging fits. Even my parents, Carlisle and Esme, would be prone to public displays often smiling at each other with looks that screamed: I'd die for you. As for myself, I'd never really been interested in all that sort of nonsense, to attach oneself to another would be to expose a weakness. Aro had never approved of any such behavior out of any of us; whereas Esme welcomed it with a sort of tender ferocity. Love to me was a fleeting thing; the inevitable end of it being the loss of one half of the whole and leaving a gaping wound where one's heart should have been. For example: Marcus, my near catatonic uncle. The loss of his mate left him a bitter and empathetic old codger. No, love for family, I could understand but to love another so deeply as to want to die without the other, that was idealistic and the sort of frippery that only existed on a stage.

**_So ... I'm holding on to the rest of the story for now. I'm not sure which way to go since I have two different ways it plays out. So, please review. Good, bad, brutal ... I'm open to anything. Thanks!!_**


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